By CASEY NEILL
WORKERS at Nissan’s Dandenong South parts warehouse will fly to Japan in a bid to keep their jobs.
Joe Doherty and his colleagues found out at 1pm on Friday 3 July that Nissan would outsource to CEVA Logistics.
“I’m 58 so I don’t know how I’ll get another job,” he said.
Mr Doherty said workers felt so strongly they were considering a trip to Nissan’s head office in Japan to confront management about the decision and ask them to reverse it.
There’ll be about 40 redundancies at Dandenong South and 58 across Australia.
“This is how strong we feel about saving our jobs,” shop steward Judi Blackwell said.
“This is not part of the automotive industry collapse. Warehousing is alive and strong.
“We’ve met all our KPIs. We always meet our targets.
“This is about Nissan outsourcing for cheaper labour.”
Ms Blackwell said some staff had worked at the warehouse for 25 years.
“They’re currently releasing the new Navara. Even right now the people are out there on the floor working so hard to get to the dealers the parts that are required for this new car,” she said.
“While the people are out there working hard they’re outsourcing.
“None of these people will find another job. There are no jobs in the south-east.
“We hope that they’ll reconsider. That’s the best case scenario. We’re going to give it a shot.”
Rob Classon has worked at the warehouse for six years.
“We work hard to get the product out for the customers and this is how they treat us – throwing us on the s*** pile.”
“I’m 48 this year and it’s going to be tough for me to go out and find another job.”
Ngoc Tran has a seven-week-old baby and Alistair Gayles spent six years in casual employment before securing a full-time position at Nissan.
“It’s as busy as it’s ever been here,” he said.
“We want to stay loyal. We want to work at Nissan.”
Narre Warren man Alex Plain said most employees had a lease car deal with the company.
He only recently sold his car to take up the offer and convinced his partner to do the same.
“Now we’ve got to go out and buy new cars,” he said.
“This job meant everything to me.
“It leaves me back in the rat race like a lot of other Australians who can’t get full-time work.
“It’s too many people competing for the same work.”
“Things are just getting tougher.”
Shop steward Tom Costello, a Nissan employee for four years, said CEVA was unlikely to maintain the warehouse.
“The operations will probably move to one of their facilities. I think it will probably head to the western suburbs,” he said.
In a statement, Nissan Australia said the change followed a parts warehousing and logistics operations review.
It concluded Nissan could only improve its competitiveness in these areas through significant investments in distribution and IT infrastructure, and property upgrades to meet increasingly stringent safety, technical and environmental compliance.
But Mr Doherty said management knew long ago that improvement works were needed and didn’t spend the money.
The statement also said Nissan had offered staff assistance relating to re-employment outside Nissan.
The announcement came less than three months after the company said it would continue to manufacture parts in Dandenong “well beyond 2020” and that growing demand for parts would lead to more jobs.
Workers will stage a rally at Nissan, corner Frankston-Dandenong Road and Quality Drive, Dandenong South, on Saturday 11 July at 10.30am.
